On January 10 BJT (January 9 PST), Chinese private enterprise Sanpower Group (Sanpower) entered into an agreement with the world renowned biopharmaceutical enterprise Valeant in San Francisco, to acquire all of the outstanding equity interests in Dendreon, a US biomedicine company under Valeant, thus owning Provenge, the first cellular immunotherapy against prostate cancer in the world. As the only original drug acquired by Chinese enterprises in the US, it brought Sanpower to the front of global precision medicine.

With cash consideration of 819 million US dollars, the transaction was the largest-ever acquisition of US drugs by Chinese enterprises. With a profit of some 120 million yuan and a PE ratio of around eight times in 2016, Provenge will have a rosy prospect in China, Asia and Europe.

On April 29, 2010, Provenge was approved by FDA as a drug against metastatic castrate-resistant (hormone refractory) prostate cancer without symptom or with mild symptoms, becoming the first FDA-approved autoimmune cellular therapy against prostate cancer. It is also the only cellular immunotherapy against advanced prostate cancer currently.

Traditional cancer therapies, such as surgical therapy, radiotherapy and drug therapy, all have some limitations. With the development of medicine, immunotherapy has become another breakthrough therapy against cancers. Provenge fights against malignant tumors through patients' immune systems, and reprograms human immune cells to identify and attack advanced prostate cancer cells, thereby treating prostate cancer. Provenge systematically and clinically verifies that immune systems can effectively inhibit cancers and prolong lives for the first time in the world, thus opening a door to immunotherapy.

The median survival time of patients receiving Provenge immunotherapy is 25.8 months compared to patients not taking Provenge whose median survival time is only 21.7 months, up some 4.1 months. Most patients taking Provenge can prolong their lives for more than 12 months, and Provenge is more effective on prostate cancer patients with mild symptoms. Provenge is similar to other small molecular oral medicines in effects, but is safer and has small side effects. Provenge can relieve lulike symptoms in one day or two, and significantly improve patients' life quality. Besides, Provenge rejects no other drugs.

Provenge has been included in major US medical insurances, including Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance. 75 percent of patients enjoy a full refund and the others enjoy a refund of more than 80 percent. Provenge is also a preferred therapy against advanced prostate cancer recommended by the guidelines of National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). As a non-profit academic organization consisting of 21 US top cancer centers, NCCN releases clinical guidelines on malignant tumors every year which are recognized and followed by global clinicians.

Valeant is a world-renowned pharmaceutical enterprise, but tumor business is not its core assets. To better align its product portfolio with its new operating strategy, Valeant entered into an agreement with Sanpower to sell Provenge to Sanpower.

According to a source, Sanpower got started with this project in the second half of 2016, and beat its opponents to win this project through several rounds of negotiation. This is the first time that a Chinese enterprise acquired an original drug in the US. With cash consideration of 819 million US dollars, the transaction was the largest-ever acquisition of US drugs by Chinese enterprises. Provenge posted a profit of some 120 million yuan and a PE ratio of around eight times in 2016. Compared to A-share biopharmaceutical companies' PE ratio of tens and even hundreds of times, the transaction set a precedent for Chinese enterprises winning world leading biomedical technology by price advantage.

According to previous public reports, Sanpower has fixed the direction of the new health industry in recent years, deploying operations in fields such as medicine and health, home care, gene detection and precision medicine.

Actually, before acquiring Provenge, Sanpower has done a lot in the new health industry. Sanpower acquired the domestic homecare enterprise An Kang Tong a couple of years ago and the Israeli leading homecare enterprise Natali in 2014. In 2016, Sanpower's A-share listed company Nanjing Cenbest marched into the biomedical field, acquired a 20% stake of the Singaporean listed company Cordlife and a 76% stake of Shandong Cord Blood Bank, and co-established a fund to acquire China Cord Blood Corporation and initiate cord blood storage operations. After a series of acquisitions, Sanpower will become the largest cord blood storage enterprise in the world. Besides, Sanpower has several medical health institutions such as Xuzhou Third People's Hospital.

"Acquisition of Provenge marks a significant step of Sanpower in precision medicine, as well as a benchmark." According to an informed source, genetic big data from cord blood storage is the basis of precision medicine; with rich cord blood resources, Sanpower has overwhelming advantage in developing precision medicine; the acquisition of Provenge has extended Sanpower's operations from basic cord blood storage to cord blood application, bringing it to a strategic level in further precision medicine operations.  

Actually, the National "Thirteenth Five-Year" Plan for the Development of Emerging Strategic Industries released by the State Council last year included biomedicine as a greatly encouraged industry in late 2016, proposed that efforts should be made to promote the development of precision medicine and personalized medicine with the rapid development of genetic technology as opportunity, and expressly noted that efforts should be made to develop new antibodies and vaccines, biological products and preparations for genetic therapy and cellular therapy, and develop tumor immunotherapy technology. Precision medicine is entering a fast-growing stage, Sanpower's acquisition took place at this stage, and Sanpower will move into the forefront of global precision medicine through the acquisition.

With the entry of China into the aging society, the morbidity of prostate cancer has increased significantly. A sample survey indicates that the morbidity of prostate cancer has increased by a dozen times in China over the past two decades. Provenge has a broad market prospect in China. Yuan Yafei, Chairman of Sanpower, expected to introduce Provenge to China and other key markets in Asia after the acquisition, "Our goal is to make state-of-the-art medical technologies and drugs for Chinese and build Sanpower into a Chinese leading cellular immunotherapy enterprise."

"Acquiring Provenge is an important step of Sanpower to perfect its new health industry chain, and Provenge will coordinate well with its other health industries." According to Yuan, Provenge's elderly care enterprise An Kang Tong has four million elderly users, elderly men are at high risk of prostate cancer; now Sanpower has one million units of cord blood in stock; in the future, Sanpower will promote the development of precision medicine through its industrial advantage in fields such as elderly care, hospital and cord blood stem cell storage, thus building a closed-loop new health industry platform integrating medical resources with elderly care resources.

Industry experts believe that the acquisition of Provenge by a Chinese company marks a milestone in China's cellular immunotherapy industry as the first FDA-approved cellular immunotherapy. Prof. Xue Wei, Director of the Department of Urology, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, believed that Provenge has proved effects on prostate cancer and is safe, introducing this mature and standard immunotherapy can treat domestic prostate cancer patients best, and it will provide a reference and model for domestic regulators to set immunotherapy standards.

Source: http://health.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0110/c14739-29012661.html